Danish Muslims urged not to vote

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Two radical Islamic groups in Denmark argue that democracy is incompatible with their religion and have told Muslims to boycott the June 18 election.

The controversial Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir has urged Danish Muslims to stay away from the voting booths on the upcoming June 18th election as a form of protest against the democratic system.

“We are committed to being active participants in our society, but it has to be on Islam's terms, without compromising our own principles and values. Democracy is fundamentally incompatible with Islam, and it is a sinking ship,” the organisation wrote in a press release, adding that the way forward for Muslims in Denmark is to oppose the country's "Islamophobic" integration policies.

Hizb ut-Tahrir has campaigned since 1953 for the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate, although unlike groups such as Isis and Al-Qaeda, it claims to reject the use of violence to establish its goal.

A representative for the notorious Grimshøj mosque in Aarhus, known for having declared its support for Isis, issued a similar statement in an interview with TV2 Østjylland, saying that “people should stay clear of the voting booths. We have concluded that only Allah can pass laws, as he says himself in the Koran that this is so.”

Danish politicians have condemned these statements, with Martin Geersten from the centre-right party Venstre releasing a press statement calling on Hizb ut-Tahrir to “leave Denmark and instead try to eke out an existence in the Isis-controlled areas in Syria and the Levant, which are apparently the conditions they hold up as an ideal.”

A political majority has recently called on the nation's public prosecutor office (Rigsadvokaten) to explore the possibility of banning Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is already banned in neighbouring Germany and a number of other countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Russia and China.